


The Adventures of Kuzon and Li

by whatthedubbs



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Accidental Teenager Aquisition, Alternate Universe, Brief description of traumatic events during the massacre of the 41st, Canon has been taken out back and shot, Familial Soulmark AU, Gen, Mentions of miscarriage, Muffinlance is to blame, The Adventures of Kuzon and Li, Weep-Not-Wednesday, well kinda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:33:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25034752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthedubbs/pseuds/whatthedubbs
Summary: General Li Huong has served in the Earth Kingdom’s army since before the death of King Kuei’s father.General Li Huong was only accompanying the Earth Army's forces defending Omashu as an observer.General Li Huong is not prepared to come home from Omashu with three identically-named Fire Nation teenagers.Oh well.  He and his wife have always wanted children.
Relationships: OMC/OFC
Comments: 54
Kudos: 922





	The Adventures of Kuzon and Li

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/gifts).



> This was a stupid idea that arose from a series of ideas people were throwing around on Tumblr. IDK if this will get more chapters or not, but have what's here. 
> 
> Basically, the premise of this is:
> 
> What if you were born with a parental soul-mark as opposed to a romantic/significant-other soul mark. Like, your parents (who are not always your birth parents) will be marked in a way that will be instantly recognizable to you, and you to them. And then someone further speculated that there were probably loads of easily identifiable earth-kingdom-style marks on the soldiers of the 41st division for them to just be sent off to die like that (after all, they're going to betray their parents; why not their country), so what better way to get rid of them?

General Li Huong has served in the Earth Kingdom’s army since before the death of King Kuei’s father.

General Li has spent decades of his life in dedicated service to his King and his chosen council. 

General Li has faced and weathered the might and fury of the Dragon of the West as he besieged the Wall for six hundred days. 

(Unlike General Mung, Li Huong was _actually at his post_ when the Dragon breached the outer wall. One does not speak ill of those returned to Oma and Shu, but if Mung had cared a bit more about his men and a bit less about his position in Hou-Ting’s court then perhaps his subsequent execution might have been prevented).

* * *

Li Huong is only twenty-five when he meets the woman who in the future will be known as the Lady Huong. A young and promising lieutenant waiting just a step behind and to the right of his General as he makes small-talk with other nobles and officials at a party thrown in honor of the King’s birthday.

Her name is Guo Zhi, third daughter of a cadet branch of one of the more obscure noble houses who’s lands were overrun by the Fire Nation almost fifty years ago. Newly-promoted General How makes a point to introduce them, and as soon as Li Huong sees her he realizes why. 

There, where it would be hidden under the curve of her delicate jaw if she wasn’t nearly seven feet tall, is the same smudge of green-and-brown pigment that Li Huong has seen in the mirror every day of his life. Her hand, when she raised her wineglass to her lips, carries the same dark brown splatter-shaped mark covered by the gloves of his dress uniform.

Li Huong _knows_ that matching child-marks do not mean a happy marriage; but his general winks at him indulgently, and Lady Zhi’s eyes over the top of her fan are turned up at the corners in a smile as he bows to her…

The first letter from her family’s matchmaker arrives at General How’s headquarters within the week, much to the general’s amusement and Li Huong’s ill-concealed delight.

* * *

Captain Li returns early from what should have been his paternity leave with sad eyes and stooped shoulders. 

His second in command takes one look at him and quietly steers him into his office and closes the door.

An hour later, the Captain leaves once more, and doesn’t come back for another three weeks.

His men learn later that his child was still-born, though thankfully Madame Huong was unharmed. 

* * *

Now-Major Li Huong holds his wife’s hand tightly as she sobs over the blood-stained bundle cradled in her arms, her normally immaculate hair tangled and sweaty and her cheeks stained blotchy red from crying. 

Li holds his own tears for later, when Guo will be asleep and he can set aside being her steady rock for a while to cry for the daughter he will never get to raise.

* * *

Li Huong has been a colonel for a year and a half when the news of his wife’s third miscarriage reaches him on campaign. 

He feels numb holding the letter from his mother-in-law, the paper perfectly crisp, even as the slight irregularity of the writing gave away her own grief for her daughter.

General How takes him aside later and asks him (not unkindly) if he and Guo have considered adoption. The size of the marks they share; surely their children will have great need of them when they meet. More than any infant could be expected to survive.

In the end, General How hands Li a one-month pass to go home and care for his wife. He smiles sadly as he dismisses Li, and tells him to pass his regrets and prayers on to the Lady Huong when he sees her.

* * *

After that, they do not try again.

They talk of adoption many times, but every time they think they are ready they find themselves hesitating, or Li will be reassigned, or the Dragon of the West will besiege the city…

General Li’s hair is starting to turn more grey than black, and Lady Huong’s face is creased and lined with both laughter and worry. Guo’s sister and brother have children and the both of them put all their effort into being aunt and uncle to their little nieces and nephews.

* * *

The war has dragged on for nearly a century when General Li goes on an observational tour of the units near Omashu for General How (still a kind if somewhat-more-pompous-than-he-used-to-be patron after so many years). For the first time in years, his wife accompanies him, if only as far as Omashu to see her cousins before the coming siege.

The general in charge is clearly competent, his earth benders well-trained and experienced. 

The same, army intelligence reports, cannot be said for the Fire Nation division they face.

Much as the prospect of ending so many young lives may make General Li grimace as he reads the reports, he knows that Omashu and Guo’s safety depend on their decisive victory. 

General Li is not a fool. He knows that there must be a much more skilled force in the area to cover the green troops that face them. Finding them is as simple as sending a runner to King Bumi. Within hours, his spies have found the hidden camp of the 76th Imperial Division. 

Within a day, the 76th Imperial Division is quietly surrounded and dealt with.

A few hours after dawn the following morning, the green 41st division attacks.

* * *

General Li stands beside General Hu on a slight rise to the rear of the battle, General Hu giving orders to his staff to relay to his men while Li watches the flow of the battle before him.

It is almost heartbreaking to watch the ease with which these Fire Nation teenagers fall before Hu’s earthbenders.

Li makes a mental note to remind Hu to watch his men closely after this battle. How many of his men have children the same age as these Fire Nation soldiers? 

He is secretly relieved when the surrender of the 41st is signaled only half an hour later.

* * *

Kuzon of Aomori clutches the rough blanket tighter around himself as he waits for the shaking in his bandaged hands (when were they injured?) and arms and _entire rest of his body_ to stop.

That morning he’d woken up with Kuzon of Aizo sprawled halfway on top of him and drool all over his shirt.

Two hours ago he’d been standing right next to Kuzon of Aizo when the earth swallowed them up to their necks and a rock the size of a small lion-dog had taken Aizo’s head clean off.

Thirty minutes ago he’d woken up to calloused but gruffly-gentle hands wrapping a green-and-brown blanket around his shoulders and a canteen being shoved into his hands.

In the distance, he can hear the still-barely-familiar sounds of an army camp going about its day, but the immediate vicinity is quiet. Still.

Kuzon of Aomori tries to take a deep breath and ignore the way the hair on the right side of his head is matted down with something he _hopes_ isn’t Kuzon of Aizo’s blood.

* * *

Kuzon of Nara did not expect to wake up after having his helmet knocked clean off his head by a flying piece of rock. 

Kuzon of Nara was reasonably okay with that at the time. At least it had been quick.

Kuzon of Nara finished panicking about his impending death a month ago as the ships carrying the 41st steamed through the Great Gates of Azulon.

Death is much easier to face when you can see it coming, he thinks. 

He wonders if Prince Zuko is still alive.

There’s a fuzzy kind of weight draped over him, a blanket probably, and what he thinks might be a hand on his back keeping him upright while a green-and-brown blur in front of him makes tutting noises so similar to the way his governess used to when he misbehaved that he has to stop himself from chuckling.

His jaw _really_ hurts.

A thumb (or at least, he thinks it’s a thumb) brushes lightly over the green-brown gateway arch that covers the right side of his neck and he flinches away; but no heat follows it. No pain. Just a soft noise from the blur in front of him and a soothing rub on the back from the hand supporting him.

* * *

Kuzon of Byakko feels distinctly as if he’s missing something. 

Quite distinctly. 

Specifically, the part of his right leg that’s supposed to be below his knee.

He makes his awareness of this absence known in the way of emergency-amputees everywhere; by screaming until it feels like his throat is going to rip open and then passing out.

Kuzon of Byakko wakes up again an indeterminate amount of time later in a dimly-lit tent with the taste of opium on the back of his tongue and bandages wrapped neatly around the stump of his right leg. There’s an old-looking man in a fancy-looking uniform sitting at a desk writing something. He looks up when Kuzon makes a soft noise of discomfort, bright green eyes flashing behind gold-rimmed spectacles as he sets down his brush.

Kuzon’s breath catches in his throat as his opiate-sluggish brain catches up.

_Earth Army._

“Calm down, son.”

_Son?_

The man’s voice is quiet and maybe a little tired? Kuzon watches as he sighs and bends down to tug up the fine silk of his robe out of the way, exposing a jagged-looking green-and-red mark around his leg just below his right knee. 

“You will be safe here. Rest.”

* * *

General Li watches the teenager until he falls back into sleep before picking his brush back up to continue his letter to his wife.

The defeat of the 41st division has been just as messy as he anticipated, if not quite in the way he expected.

Every officer in His Majesty’s army is aware that from time to time Fire Nation soldiers with Earth Kingdom marks are captured. Every officer in His Majesty’s armies knows it is their duty to unite these young men and women _(women!)_ with their soul-parents if possible. 

Never before in record have so many soldiers with markings been captured at once. Almost six _thousand_ of them, if General Hu’s scribes are to be believed (and General Li is inclined to believe them). 

General Li would consider it quite the coup, if not for the fact that he suspects most of these young soldiers will never be able to fight again. He has been through too many post-battle hospitals and recovery wards to expect otherwise. 

A soft tapping sounds from just outside the fabric of his tent.

“Enter,” General Li sets his brush down once more and looks up as his aide, Lieutenant Huan, comes (quietly) to attention and salutes.

“General Hu wishes to report that his scribes have nearly finished recording the familial marks of the… prisoners,” Huan informs him in a soft voice, eyes darting toward the sleeping teenager in the corner. “At least two more of them bear wounds consistent with my honored general’s markings, as well as the seal of your noble wife’s venerable house.”

General Li motions for Huan to stand at ease and sits back in his chair himself. 

“Do you have their names, Huan?”

“Yes, General.” And General Li detects just the barest hint of mirth in his aide’s voice. “As it happens, they share one. Kuzon.”

General Li sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose to stave off the headache he can suddenly feel coming on. 

“Of course.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [podfic of The Adventures of Kuzon and Li](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25665172) by [loot1991](https://archiveofourown.org/users/loot1991/pseuds/loot1991)




End file.
